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Wednesday, 20 November 2013

Wild Bird Wednesday 71 - King Parrots

Of all the birds that I see on a daily basis, parrots are without question my favourite.

One of the (many) pleasures of going away for a while is the chance to see some species of parrot that are not part of my daily scene.

Although I would not have to move very far from where I live to see them regularly Australian King Parrots are still a bit of a novelty to me - so I was more than pleased to find them in the garden of the house we stayed in during the last school holidays. (You can read about that trip here)

As you can see, Australian King Parrots are rather bright - in fact in some lights the red head feathers of the male are so bright that photographs of them take on a rather unreal feel! The females and juveniles are hardly dull, but they are a little more toned down than the males.

Australian King-Parrots (once know as King's Parrot) are a robust bird of about 40 - 44 cm in length. Their scientific name - Alisterus scapularis - means Alister's shouldered bird. Alister being the four year old son of an ornithologist, and the shoulder relating to the pale wing stripe.

Male, showing pale wing stripe

Now it's your turn to join in with WBW. Good number of bloggers have been linking up over the past month, but we can always find space for more! So, invite away and don't forget to link back here!

As a bit of a special plea, could I remind people to link to a specific post on their blog so that the link takes the "clicker" to the specific post. Also, if you could disable the word verification nightmare thing that would be great - but of course this is only a request!

Another brilliant Aussi Bird. Regarding the names fo birds you might be interested that I have recently purchased a book called Who's Bird (Bo Beolens & Michael Watkins. Published by Helm) which describes the people who have given their names to birds.

These are beautiful pictues of the King Parrot, Stewart. They are indeed beautiful and the male is outstanding. What a blessing to be able to spend time in their company. I don't know if I could have resisted slipping them a treat or two ... but then, I know they are probably better off if you don't. Thanks for another peek into your world.

I've never taken pictures of birds so I'm not able to take part - but feel quite moved to see the parrots. Our birds are mostly dull until quite close up. They often have a bright feather here and there but few are as in-you-eye as the birds you show here.

I'm always amazed by all of your parrots! We don't see them often here.....maybe one of two can be seen in the wild. But parrots are rare finds here! Thanks for sharing your wonderful birds.....incredible colors on this one!

Wow Stewart, the King Parrots are stunning birds! I miss seeing parrots as we only seem to have had them in Kenya. In South Africa we only get them in the Cape and our home in far inland in the center of the country. I hope my links and comment availability are OK. I have disabled my Word Verification (or maybe I never had it!) Have a great day. Jo (Tanzania)

Stewart I remarked to another of your contributors just the other day about the number of parrots you seem to have in Australia. Now you come up with yet another. This one is another beautiful coloured thing too and your pictures are just spot on.

I suppose there are less significant things that could be tagged to a name than that of the Sceintific name being given from a four year old son of an ornithologist, named Alister...I kind of like that name, had never heard of it either ;) Stewart, these are grand looking images of what must be delightful birds. Sorry, I am so later, but have had a difficult week in many ways~